
''4^ 










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Cbe expansion of tfte Republic 
m%\ of tbc mi$$t$$ippl 

By JOHN A. KASSON 



The Expansion of the Republic West 
of the Mississippi. 



ADDRESS 

At the Dedication of the Historic Monument erected at 
Sioux City, Iowa, in Commemoration of the Acquisi- 
tion of Louisiana and in Honor of the First 
Explorers and Pioneers of the West. 



May 30TH, A. D. 1901. 
By JOHN A. KASSON. 




Feli^ow-Citizkns : 

The occasion which has brought this great assembly- 
together evokes the memory of many important events in our 
national history. To all except the aged pioneer it seems 
impossible that only a century ago all the fair land we look 
upon from this eminence and all westward to the continental 
range of mountains was a desert, and under the dominion of 
despotic Spain; that all the land eastward to the Mississippi, 
as well as all toward the setting sun. was at that time, and had 
been for unrecorded ages, in possession of wild beasts and of 
savages of the human race. 

Only ninety-seven summers have passed since a roving 
Indian standing on this highland would have witnessed a scene 
altogether new and strange to him. A barge 55 feet long, 



having a forecastle forward and a cabin aft, carrying 22 oars 
and a square sail, drew near this shore on its passage up the 
great river of the Missouri. It was accompanied by two 
smaller open boats ; and altogether they carried about forty 
pale-faces, chiefly soldiers. A number of the men landed at 
the foot of this bluff and ascended it, bearing gently a burden 
which they deposited in a grave, and marked the spot with a 
rude cedar post. Upon its face was inscribed the name of 
Sergeant Charles Floyd of the United States Army, who had 
died that day, August 20, 1804. No Priest's prayer or bless- 
ing was heard; but certain simple honors of the military 
service broke the sad silence of the ceremony. After this 
solemn act these pale- faces descended the bluff to the boats ; 
and the barge with its pirogues moved a mile up the river into 
the mouth of a tributary stream, then 30 yards wide, where 
the company camped for the night. The brilliant stars of this 
western firmament drew their eyes and their thoughts heaven- 
ward, whither their brave companion had just departed, and 
made the scene more beautiful than the day. In honor of the 
dead they dedicated to his memory both the burial bluff and 
the little river in which they were moored. Thenceforth for 
all time these two objects in nature shall preserve the name of 
their dead comrade. So does a name — a mere sound in the 
air — become more imperishable than any structure of human 
workmanship. Unaffected by flood or tempest, or war's 
destructiveness, it is repeated from father to son, for all 
generations. 

Thus prematurely died and was buried the courageous 
young Kentuckian. He had enlisted for a long and adven- 
turous service which was expected to lead him along 
mighty rivers, among many wild and strange tribes, and over 
unknown mountains, until his eyes should finally rest upon 
that great and distant ocean which washed the western shores 
of the unexplored continent. Although he perished in the 
earlier stage of the enterprise this lonely burial, which cut off 



P. 
Author. 

ff»rsofl>. 

29jc'01 



his hopes and his career, has preserved his name and memory 
among mankind above that of his comrades who continued 
the struggle to the end, and who returned to receive the 
rewards voted by an appreciative Congress. 

The Great Exploration of 1804-6. 

President Jefferson had in the winter of i8o2-'3 conceived 
the plan of an exploring expedition up the Missouri and across 
the mountains to the Pacific with the view of scientific investi- 
gation and of opening trade with the Indians, and also of find- 
ing a feasible route for the limited commerce of that day across 
the continent. He hoped also to divert the fur trade of the 
Northwest into the hands of Americans. He obtained an ap- 
propriation from Congress of $2,500, with which he proceeded 
to organize a company under the leadership of Captains Merri- 
wether I^ewis, his private secretary, and William Clark. The 
details of that expedition are interesting, but are already so 
well known that there is no occasion to repeat them in this 
address. Its success was only accomplished by the exercise 
of all the virtues known to the life of the frontiersman. It 
required valor, perseverence, mutual trust, self-confidence, 
vigilance, knowledge of the instincts and characteristics of the 
savage, inventive resource, endurance, continuous toil, and 
unlimited courage. The explorers left their camp in Illinois, 
opposite the mouth of the Missouri, on May 14, 1804, aiid six- 
teen days from their departure saw the last cabin of the white 
man, about one hundred miles from the mouth of the river. 
It was ninety-seven years ago this day that they bade farewell 
to "these huts of semi-civilization. Thenceforward for many, 
many weary months, upward along the endless windings and 
shifting sandbars of that treacherous river, and through the 
gorges and over the trackless ridges of confused mountains, 
and down the unknown streams rushing to the Pacific Ocean, 
abandoning their old boats and building new, in peril of starva- 
tion, in peril of drowning, in peril of wild beasts and of wily 



savages, they pushed their way over flooding v^^aters and path- 
less forests to their desolate destination on an uncharted ocean 
coast in the far region of the sunset. Every morning found 
them ignorant where their evening would be. The sun by day 
and the stars by night were the only familiar things of the 
visible universe. When in the opening of a second winter sea- 
son they arrived on the bleak and desolate ocean shore at the 
mouth of a great river, it was only to encounter the incessant 
cold rains of winter, the increasing dangers of famine, and the 
attacks of disease. After four tedious months of waiting beside 
the deserted waters of the Pacific, hoping vainly for sight of a 
vessel that should take their homeward messages around Cape 
Horn, in the third Spring of their expedition they turned their 
steps again into the continental wilderness on their return (if 
God should permit it) to the lands of civilization and of expect- 
ant friends. 

Again the weary hunt for wild food, again the endless tug- 
ging at the oars upstream, again the rugged transit of mountain 
ranges, once more the search for new passes and new waters 
of navigation in the tangled web of mountains, until at last, in 
the Summer of 1806, their boats were again launched upon the 
Missouri. Then for the first time they felt themselves truly 
"homeward bound." Now the swift current of the great 
stream which was lately their enemy became their friend. 
Every lapping wavelet now sang of the nearing home. The 
stars, ever brilliant in that clear atmosphere, now seemed to 
shine with increasing luster as they rose up from the distant 
East, where anxious friends were awaiting the long-expected 
tidings. Familiar scenes of old camping places appeared as 
they swiftly descended the river. More cheerily than on the 
upward voyage they now leaped into the stream to push their 
boat from the ever-lurking, ever-changing sandbars. Instead 
of fifteen or twenty miles a day as on their upward voyage, 
they now counted fifty, sixty, even seventy miles per day. 
There was little halting on their homeward course. But as 



they came by the Bluff on which we are now standing the 
strong magnet of memory drew them to the shore. Once more 
the Expedition halted at this landing that they might visit the 
grave of their dead comrade. They restored it to a condition 
of safety, and then bade the sacred deposit a long farewell. 
Little did they know— not one of the toil-worn heroes ever 
dreamed— of a future scene like that we look upon to-day. 
They saw only a solitary grave-mound in a vast desert region, 
far away from the abodes of civilization. We behold a splendid 
monument commemorating the spot where they laid their com- 
rade in his last camping-ground, while jubilant thousands 
celebrate the brilliant deeds of the men who then sailed sadly 
away from the shore. They looked upstream and eastward 
upon a limitless solitude, stretching far away to the North and 
to the Mississippi. Our eyes look upon a populous and pros- 
perous city which shall watch forever over this grave, and 
around it a rich and happy State of the American Union, with 
more than two millions of patriotic inhabitants, who to-day 
recall with pride the story of the first American pioneers of the 
great West. It is a transformation scene unmatched in any 
oriental story. But these pilgrims of the wilderness, ignorant 
and undreaming of all this incredible future, passed on, plying 
their oars, until at the end of nineteen days they met a joyous 
welcome from the villagers of St. Louis, and rested from their 
labors. 

The Historic Commemoration. 

But this lofty monument is not erected solely to commem- 
orate the modest life and humble career of the Army sergeant 
whose bones were deposited in this soil long before the plow of 
civilization had disturbed it. Nor will this memorial only 
serve to celebrate the splendid exploration accomplished by his 
more fortunate companions. It also perpetuates the memory 
of a grea thistoric act which influenced the fate of three nations, 
and opened the way to new liberties and increased happiness 



for mankind. It changed the development of onr people, and 
gave a new pathway to the march of our young Republic. It 
is this historical significance of the monument which induced 
the National Congress, the Legislature of Iowa, and the patri- 
otic people of Sioux City to combine their efforts for its erec- 
tion. It is my honorable and welcome duty to-day, Fellow- 
citizens, to invite your attention to the history of that great 
acquisition in our national progress which this monument will 
forever commemorate, and to indicate its influence upon the 
later destinies of the Republic. 

Changing Fortunes of I,ouisiana. 

Before the outbreak of the Anglo-French War of 1756 the 
French King claimed under the name of " L,ouisiana " not 
only all of the Mississippi Valley west of that river, but also 
all the valley on the east of it lying north of Spanish Florida 
and eastward to the Alleghany Mountains. The country north 
of the upper Ohio, however, was regarded as a part of Canada. 
The Count de Vergennes in his memorial on the subject, ad- 
dressed to the King of France, says that the Appalachian 
Mountains "separate the new France from the new England 
as distinctly as in Europe the mountains of the Pyrenees sepa- 
rate France from Spain."* 

The Lrouisiana of that day may be generally described as 
embracing the whole region north of Spanish Mexico and 
Spanish Florida, from the Alleghanies to the Rocky Mountains, 
and from the sources of the Mississippi to its mouth, with the 
exception of that northeastern part which was tributary to 
the Great Lakes north of the Ohio, and was therefore associ- 
ated with Canada. 

The French were very active in establishing trading posts 
and making agreements with the Indians for common hostility 



*"Separent aussi distinctement la Nouvelle France de la Nouvelle 
Angleterre, que les Monts Pyrenees separent, en Europe, la France 
d'avec I'Espagne." 



to the English. Along the undefined Eastern boundaries 
aggressions were continually occurring without waiting for 
declarations of war. When the war of 1756 came it proved 
exhaustive for both parties, but ended most disastrously for 
the French. They were obliged in the end to surrender to 
the British all Canada, and all of Ivouisiana lying east of the 
Mississippi, with the exception of New Orleans and the block 
of adjacent land extending east to the boundary of west 
Florida. The delta east of the river, and all the remainder of 
I^ouisiana to the west and northwest of the river as far as the 
mountains, was about the same time ceded by France to Spam 
in compensation for her losses in the war as the ally of France. 

The retention by the French King in his treaty with 
England of the lower east bank of the river, which gave to the 
jealous Spaniard the control of both banks for a long distance 
above the mouth, and of the whole Gulf coast, was destined to 
cause much angry excitement and trouble in the future, with 
much contention between the United States and Spanish gov- 
ernments; and it led later to a great change in the policy of 
the United States. The Treaty of Peace of 1763 assured to 
England the free navigation of the river to its mouth. But 
commerce in barges and flat boats required a depot near New 
Orleans for its transfer to ocean-going vessels. France, how- 
ever, had relieved herself of all trouble on this account by her 
secret transfer of the territory to Spain. After the Peace of 
1763 England found French interests withdrawn from the 
American continent, and Spain was in possession of all the 
Mississippi region which France had owned or claimed, except 
that portion toward the Alleghanies and above the Ohio, which 
was ceded by the Treaty to England. 

This was the situation when our Revolutionary War again 
disturbed the international conditions in respect to Louisiana. 
Naturally the sympathies of the French people and govern- 
men were with our American patriots because England was 
our adversary. But the Memoir of Count de Vergennes, before 



referred to, shows that the motive of France for participating 
in the Revolutionary War as our ally was found in the hope of 
inducing Spain to retrocede L,ouisiana and of recovering Canada 
for herself. The Memoir expressly mentions the danger to 
both Spain and France if the Americans should succeed in 
their Revolution. The French statesman says plainly that 
" the United Provinces of America, after shaking off the met- 
ropolitan yoke, will be in a condition to give the law to France 
and Spain in all America, and they v^ill invade their posses- 
sessions at the moment when the two crowns will be least 
thinking of it." The French government was not so desirous 
for our success as for the loss by England of her American 
Colonies and later acquisitions, and for the restoration to 
France of her former possessions. But even with her aid the 
war had no such result. Kngland retained Canada and con- 
ceded to the revolted Colonies their independence, together 
with all the territory held by England south of Canada and 
east of the Mississippi. 

This territory seemed to our fathers vast enough for many 
generations of Americans. So late as 1801 Jefferson in his 
Inaugural Message congratulated the American people on 
"possessing a chosen country, with room enough for our 
descendants to the hundredth and thousandth generation." 
And yet in that same generation, during that very administra- 
tion, the expansion of the territory of the Republic began, not 
by will of President or Government, but by that Providential 
force of development that has so often in our history overborne 
or compelled the will of man. The story of this wonderful 
transformation of public opinion and statesmanship may be 
briefly told. 

After the establishment of our independence, and indeed 
before it, our already scattered population had begun to feel 
its way across the Alleghanies into the fertile lands of the great 
valley beyond. All the transportation of their products sea- 
ward must follow the current of the rivers flowing into the 



Gulf of Mexico. Spain, now holding- all llie outlets through 
East and West Florida, and the entire Gulf coast as far as 
Mexico by her acquisition of T_,ouisiana, was arbitrary, selfish, 
and jealous of this right of transit through her territory. The 
United States Government by treaty of 1795 had secured from 
Spain the right of depot at New Orleans for products of the 
United States for the term of three years only, with provision 
for its continuance or for the establishment of another depot on 
the banks of the river. For a few years this arrangement was 
continued undisturbed. Then came a report from Europe 
that Spain under the commanding influence of Bonaparte had 
retroceded New Orleans and the entire province of Louisiana 
to France. lu the subsequent excitement among the colonists 
the Spanish Intendant for some unknown reason cancelled the 
privilege of depot for our citizens. The Americans of the 
whole valley suddenly became aware of the frail tenure by 
which they held their commercial privileges. The entire val- 
ley became angrily excited, and was ready for immediate war 
and the capture of New Orleans if the depot privilege were not 
restored. 

The report of the retrocession was afterwards verified, and 
the title to Louisiana was again in France. It had been 
effected by a secret treaty executed in October, 1800, but the 
terms were not published until many years afterward. The 
Americans of the valley, foreseeing the closing of their only 
commercial gateway, flooded Congress with their remon- 
strances, threatened to take measures for their security into 
their own hands, and boldly announced that their national 
allegiance depended on national protection. The more violent 
among them indicated the possibility of organizing an inde- 
pendent republic west of the Alleghanies, of seizing the con- 
trol of the Mississippi and its valley, and expelling both France 
and Spain. 

President Jefferson became profoundly alarmed by the 
energetic action of the West. He wrote to our Minister (Liv- 



ingston) at Paris that the possession by France of New Orleans 
would force the United States into alliance with England. He 
summoned Monroe to go with all speed of preparation on a 
special mission to Paris, the object of which was declared to be 
to purchase New Orleans and the Floridas, or so much of them 
as the powers in possession could be persuaded to part with. 
His purpose was wholly limited to the question of acquiring 
lands or permanent depots on the east of the Mississippi, and 
on the rivers running through Florida, for the convenience of 
our commerce which required outlets to the Gulf of Mexico, 
the northern shore of which would now be wholly controlled 
by Spain and France against the interests of the United States. 
This control by two foreign and allied powers was rightfully 
regarded as more dangerous to American interests than was 
the sole dominion of Spain. France under Bonaparte, then 
First Consul, was a much more dangerous neighbor than the 
King of Spain. The simple presence of French sovereignty at 
the mouth of the Mississippi was a provocation to the hostile 
fleets of Europe, and particularly an invitation to the fleets of 
England to enter and seize New Orleans and the mouths of that 
great river. This would establish Great Britain, already en- 
trenched upon our northern frontier, on the other flank of the 
young Republic, involving a thousand dangers to our growing 
interests in the newly-settled valley of the West. 

French recklessness of international obligations on the 
high seas had already been disastrous to our commerce on the 
Atlantic Ocean. Eastern merchants had numerous and just 
claims against the French for their seizures of our vessels and 
cargoes on the ocean, and now they were to control also the 
commercial outlet of the continental inland, and to invite 
thither the presence of warlike fleets. The instinct of danger 
which developed itself in the West was fully justified. Jeffer- 
son, who during his long residence in Paris had become 
impregnated with French ideas and French sympathies, was 
slower in appreciating the dang'ers than were the people of the 

lO 



valley. Indeed his adhesion to French ideas and French 
interests had years before caused a certain alienation of senti- 
ment between him and Washington. The terrible excesses of 
the French Revolution, its gross infidelity and its shocking 
bloodshed in the effort to abolish Christianity and law, had 
ofifended all Washington's sentiments of religion and humanity. 
The sympathies of Washington were on the side of the religious 
civilization of his Knglish forefathers; while Jefferson looked 
complacently upon the violent destruction of all that was 
sanctified by ages of faith and of custom. So now after Wash- 
ington's death, himself in the President's chair, Jefferson was 
far behind other responsible citizens of the Republic in his 
appreciation of the perils arising from French recklessness in 
resort to war and international violence. He did not lead, but 
followed the people in their protest against the fresh introduc- 
tion of the power of France into the very center of our 
continent. 

The Purchase of Louisiana a Surprise to the 
United States Government, 

Jefferson's proposed measure of relief was limited, and 
altogether inadequate to provide for the future interests of the 
United States. His instruction to his Envoys was to obtain 
" a cession to the United States of New Orleans and of West 
and East Flordia, or as much thereof as the actual proprietor 
can be prevailed on to part with." That is to say, their 
attention was called exclusively to the Gulf Coast line extend- 
ing from the Mississippi to the Atlantic. This appeared to be 
the maximum of his wishes. There was no hint of our requir- 
ing or of purchasing the great territory west of the Mississippi. 
He then proceeded to instruct them touching a possible 
reduction of even this demand, if necessary. If no grant 'of 
territorial jurisdiction could be obtained they were to secure 
mere rights of deposit, with the privilege of holding real 
estate for commercial purposes. In respect to the Floridas, 



the Envoys were to secure depots at the mouths of the rivers 
which rau from the United States through Florida to the sea, 
together with their free navigation. And the sum within 
which they were to negotiate for any or all of these concessions 
was two millions of dollars. 

It thus appears that Jefferson had never contemplated the 
acquisition of what is called the " Louisiana Purchase." 
Popular opinion has attributed to him a remarkable and 
statesmanlike foresight in negotiating for that vast tract of 
country west of the Mississippi in order to provide for the 
future needs of the then young Republic. The truth, however, 
compels us to recognize the fact that neither the American 
people of that day — who were few in number compared with 
the extent of their existing territory, and who already possessed 
ample lands beyond their power of cultivation — nor their 
statesmen in their farthest vision foresaw the amazing develop- 
ment destined to come before the end of the century. Jeffer- 
son's plans, not anticipating, but following the demands of the 
" West," only sought to provide for an existing emergenc5^ 
and to acquire in perpetuity a right which had been once con- 
ceded to the United States by Spain — the right of a free depot 
and transfer of their products. That was the attitude of our 
Government when Monroe sailed for France. Its eyes were 
directed to the South, not to the West. 

The real scene of the story of the lyouisiana Purchase is 
on the other side of the Atlantic. It is laid in Paris, where 
the proposal of the greater transaction had its origin in the 
breast of the powerful master of the French Republic. 

The First Consul, under the pressure of European hostili- 
ties, was contemplating an act of transcendent importance to 
our country. He had secretly held all of Lyouisiana at his 
disposal since October, 1800, although our Ministers in France 
and Spain had been kept in ignorance of it. So late as the 
Spring of 1803, Talleyrand deceptively denied the French 
title in a conversation with lyivingston. But now a renewal 



12 



of the war with England was threatened. The British navy 
was dominant on the sea, and an English expedition might at 
any time seize New Orleans, and France would lose the 
colony without compensation. His thoughts were already 
bent on a sale to the United States by which he hoped not 
only to satisfy our large pecuniary claims which we were 
pressing against his government, but to obtain besides a large 
surplus to reinforce his treasury for the coming war. He 
directed Marbois, his Minister of Finance, to offer the entire 
Province of Louisiana to the United States, and to demand in 
compensation one hundred million francs, together with the 
assumption by our government of the American claims against 
France for her outrages on our commerce. He sarid to his 
advisers with some passion in his voice that England coveted 
that colony and could easily make a descent there; but she 
should not have it. For France to retain it would be folly. 
He would cede the whole to the United States. This was the 
situation when Monroe arrived in Paris; for this startling pro- 
posal had been already communicated to Livingston, who could 
hardly credit the sincerity of the offer. 

The prospect of this vast and complete acquisition which 
would for the second time eliminate French control from the 
American continent and settle -the question of commercial 
depots forever, aroused intense interest in both the American 
Envoys, but especially in the mind of Livingston. Com- 
munication with the United States by occasional sailing vessels 
was slow and uncertain. In that day neither telegraph nor 
steamship was available. A royal message to the English 
Parliament had just annoimced the British preparation for 
renewing the war with France. If anything was to be done 
with Louisiana it must be done quickly. Our Envoys could 
not wait for new instructions. With true American courage 
they resolved to take the responsibility upon themselves, and 
without authority win a new empire for the young Republic. 
They protested against the extravagance of the sum demanded 

^3 



as beyond the resources of the American government, and 
succeeded in reducing the amount of purchase money to sixty 
millions of francs, and in limiting the assumption of American 
claims to twenty millions of francs. They then concluded the 
three treaties with all haste. They were signed on the 30th 
of April, 1803. The war cloud hanging over the English 
channel burst eighteen days after the signature. When the 
names of the plenipotentiaries were appended to this unexpected 
Convention of Purchase, lyivingston enthusiastically grasped 
the hands of Marbois and Monroe, saying: "We have lived 
long, but this is the noblest work of our lives ! " The praise 
for this magnificent accomplishment is more due to Robert R. 
lyivingston than to any other American ; and some city or 
county in every State formed out of this imperial purchase 
should bear his name in commemoration of his courageous 
statesmanship. 

Acquisition Denounced, but Justified by History. 

The purchase money was indeed a great sum to pay out 
of the limited Treasury and unestablished national credit of 
the United States of that day. Bitter opposition was aroused 
in this country against the ratification of the treaty. The 
acquisition was derided as of little worth, wholly unnecessary, 
and tending to weaken the old States. It was declared to be 
an excessive extension of territory which would lead to a dis- 
ruption of the Union. The prophets of woe were as effusive 
then over the enlargement of our territory as they have been 
ever since over the successive expansions which have illum- 
inated the pages of our national history. The evil predictions 
of 1803 are now buried deep in the drift of time. The very 
names of the false prophets are in oblivion, while the many 
happy millions who inhabit the twelve States and two Terri- 
tories now lying within the limits of the Louisiana Purchase 
have forever repudiated the old forecasts of evil. Instead of 
diminishing, the older States have greatly increased their 

14 



population and prosperity with the settiement and development 
of the new. The newer States have also forged new bands tor 
the strengthening of the Union. The bravest blood offered to 
the Nation in its historic struggle for Liberty and Union, and 
in its struggle for the maintenance of the national power and 
glory abroad, has flowed from the veins of men who were 
nourished on this new soil of the Republic. Patriotism, 
courage, energy, flow forth with every heart beat of the child 
of the new West. He has subdued the savagery which dom- 
inated the prairies and plains and mountains of the lyouisiana 
of 1803. He has covered the rolling prairies and plains with 
grazing herds and smiling harvests, with schoolhouses for 
happy children and churches for an untrammelled religion. 
He has uncovered the hidden caves of rich metals in the great 
mountains of northwestern Louisiana, and has enriched his 
whole country with the elements of a new and unbounded 
prosperity. Whenever and wherever his nation's flag has 
been thrown to the breeze at home or abroad, in Mexico 
or Alaska, in Cuba or other islands of the sea, under the great 
wall of China or in the mountain fastnesses of Luzon, wher- 
ever deeds of loyalt}', of courage and of daring are required, 
there in the front rank of volunteers is heard the quick response 
of the loyal sons of the West. New strength has been acquired 
for the Constitution and Union, new hope for the country's 
prosperity is created with every new breath born in the ex- 
panded territory of our Republic. 

It may be further confidently affirmed that our national 
character has not deteriorated during the century in which we 
have followed the Providential law of our national growth and 
development. We have seen in what manner this law was 
introduced and historically established. I call it Providential 
because neither our statesmen nor our people proposed it or 
foresaw it. The national representatives of that day, including 
Jefferson himself, when informed of the Convention signed by 
our Envoys in Paris, doubted its constitutionality, or were 

15 



astounded by the resulting increase of the public debt. They 
adopted it chiefly because of the evident perils to existing 
national interests which would follow its rejection. 

The Story of Louisiana Dramatic — Her Fate 
Providential. 

The whole story of I^ouisiana involves much that is 
dramatic and unexpected. De Soto merely crossed its central 
river and died without discovering its mouth or exploring its 
course, although his decimated followers later escaped through 
its outlet without any act of possession. Consequently Spain 
acquired no title to the river valley. Then came France, whose 
explorers from Canada made discoveries from the sources down- 
ward, and later found its outlet by sea and took possession 
upward. Her right to the country was therefore beyond dis- 
pute. Had the French retained possession of all their discov- 
eries they would have imprisoned the future American Republic 
between the AUeghanies and the Atlantic. But this was not 
the Divine purpose. England conquered Canada, and Eastern 
Ivouisiana followed the fate of her sister province and became 
British colonial territory. As a consequence, the latter fell to 
the United States upon the recognition of their independence. 
So it happened that our people at the end of the Revolutionary 
War found themselves in possession as far as the Mississippi, 
but there were barred from all further Western progress so 
long as Spain held all the vast territory west of the river. 

Had our boundary remained there for a hundred years, no 
human mind can conceive the change it would have made in 
the destiny of this nation. Without the wheatfields and corn- 
fields and the cattle ranges of the prairies and plains of the 
Trans-Mississippi, without the lead and iron ores of Missouri, 
without the vast deposits of gold and silver and copper of the 
western mountain ranges, with no roads across the continent, 
with no harbors on the Pacific Coast, without possession of the 
mouth of the Mississippi, without any port on the Gulf of 

i6 



Mexico, above all without the incentive to our individual 
activities and national development that these sources of wealth 
have afforded — no human intellect, no poet's imagination, can 
portray what would have been our fate or our condition to-day 
as influenced or controlled by the nations which might have 
possessed them. What wars might have ensued, what liber- 
ties might have perished, what miseries might have befallen ! 
But at the Providential moment there appeared upon the 
European horizon a new and dominant personal force in the 
French Republic which overawed Spain, and her king yielded 
to the demand of " Citizen Bonaparte," andre stored Louisiana 
to France. This again threatened to be a more serious obstacle 
to our growth than was the power of Spain, for the military 
force of France was far greater. But two years later France 
finds it impracticable to retain lyouisiana owing to her naval 
inferiority to England, and Bonaparte suddenly, without the 
knowledge of the government at Washington, conveys the 
title finally and forever to the United States. Even then 
Spain, alarmed at the absolute and final disposal of the country 
by France, protests our title because of an alleged condition 
attached to her retrocession to France. This condition was 
officially notified to the United States that Eouisiana should 
never be conveyed by France to a third power. But Bonaparte 
imperatively insisted that delivery should be made to him 
under the cession of 1800, which was done; and he immedi- 
ately thereafter, on the 20th December, 1803, transferred the 
possession of New Orleans to the United States. The Lewis 
and Clark Expedition, conceived without expectation of our 
possible ownership, was thus enabled to explore the territory of 
Louisiana under our own flag. But we had at that time no 
acknowledged title to the country westward of the mountains 
to the Pacific Coast. Spain, Great Britain, and Russia were 
on that coast before us. Equally in the order of Providence, 
and just in time, the New England Captain Gray, under the 
American flag, was the first to enter the mouth of the great 

17 



river of Oregon in 1792, which under international law gave 
to the United States the claim of discovery, and this claim was 
strongly reinforced by the succeeding exploration of Lewis and 
Clark. With this inchoate right on the Pacific Coast the 
United States was able by later treaties to permanently estab- 
lish our title on that shore, with well-defined limits between 
the Spanish territory on the south and the British on the north. 

The Prize Contested in Two Wars. 

Our acquisition of Louisiana had been accomplished by 
the pacific methods of diplomacy. But the permanent posses- 
sion of it by our Union was only to be preserved at the cost of 
great treasure and by the sacrifice of many lives. In less than 
twelve years from the date of the cession by France, while we 
were at war with Great Britain that Power despatched an 
expedition to seize the mouth of the River, accompanied by 
an army for the capture of New Orleans. The men of the 
lower valley rushed to arms, met the invading enemy, and 
drove him back to the sea. The dramatic feature of Louisi- 
ana's history again appears in the fact that this battle was 
fought after the signature of Peace, of which the tidings had 
not yet reached the combatants. This battle, however, bril- 
liant as it was on the part of the American volunteers, hardly 
rises to the dignity of tragedy in comparison with the prolonged 
struggle which followed a half century later. 

This incomparable valley, dowered with inexhaustible 
wealth, and like Helen of Troy possessed of the fatal gift of 
beauty, was destined to become the scene of the greatest con- 
flict known in the history of the American Continent — a 
conflict, please God ! never to be renewed. On this 30th day 
of May, devoted by the affection of the American people to the 
memory of the heroes of the War for the Union, we cannot 
forget the splendid services of the men who by their indomitable 
courage again saved the Lower Mississippi to the United States 

18 



together with all the original Louisiana on both banks below 
the mouth of the Ohio. 

In our great civil struggle Louisiana and its river once 
more became the mighty stake played for in the terrible game 
of war. Again the question was presented of the Northern 
right of access to the sea by way of the river, and of the con- 
trol of the delta at its mouth. Vaster commercial interests 
than ever before were in suspense. Once more, also, a Bona- 
parte appeared on the borders of the scene gazing eagerly from 
Mexico upon the still coveted territory which had been ceded 
by his great predecessor. The brave and stalwart men of the 
valley, in former contests united, were now unhappily divided 
into hostile camps. As never before it was now a battle of 
giants, equally brave, equally resolved. The issue hung long 
in a balance, the scales of which were filled with blood. But 
the great-hearted men of the upper valley clothed themselves 
in the panoply of the Union, drew in a mighty inspiration 
from the sentiment of expanding human liberty, and fought 
four long years to regain the untrammelled freedom of the 
great river from all its sources to the sea. The bones of our 
heroic dead who perished in that fearful struggle lie scattered 
along all the river shores from the Missouri to the Gulf. But 
they did not die in vain. We owe it to their unfaltering 
courage that since the end of these years of battle, and we 
trust for all time to come, every rivulet that falls eastward 
down the rugged ranges of the Rocky Mountains, or that 
ripples southward from the far springs of the Canadian frontier, 
or that leaps westward down the slopes of the AUeghanies, 
dances along all its winding way through the old Louisiana to 
the southern sea under the folds of the Star-Spangled Banner 
and to the music of the Union. All hail to the memory of 
these heroes dead ; and all hail to their comrades who live to 
salute the dawn of this day dedicated to the memory of their 
deeds ! 



19 



Expansion a Vital I^aw of thk Republic. 

Such is the outline of the story of lyouisiana, first tossed 
to and fro between France and Spain, and then imperiously 
tossed by the French Kxecutive to the Envoys of the United 
States. Eater it was twice subjected to the wager of battle. 
Its acquisition is especially significant in our history, as it was 
the first enlargement of that original territory which our fathers 
thought sufficient for our children until the "hundredth gen- 
eration." Based upon Eouisiana, the Republic continued its 
expansion across the middle of the continent from the great 
ocean of the sunrise to the greater ocean of the sunset. Our 
Republic did not dream 3^et of the wider expansion which was 
still enfolded in the shadow of her future destiny. She awaited 
the reappearance of the index finger of Providence. 

But important events of our history have taught us one 
great truth of our heredity as a people. Expansion is in the 
blood of our race. Organized liberty demands a broadening 
sphere of action. A single generation may pause to organize 
and utilize what a previous one has acquired. But a succeed- 
ing generation will reassert the inherent impulse of the race so 
long as barbarism remains on the earth unsubdued. Under 
Christian auspices it is the Providential Law which from age 
to age opens up new regions to the influences of a higher 
civilization, and uplifts the inferior races by contact with the 
superior. The right to enforce civilized usages among man- 
kind is higher and holier than the right to maintain barbaric 
practices and inhuman laws. The better has an inherent moral 
right to expand over the worse. The justice and humanity of 
the motive will forever consecrate the onward movement with 
a Divine sanction. Peace and order, liberty and prosperity, 
education and morality, have hitherto followed the advancing 
flag of the American Republic. Wild beasts have given place 
to peaceful herds and flocks. The wandering wigwam has 
been replaced by the settled home. The ground of the war- 
dance is occupied by the school-house, and the pole hung with 



scalp-locks by the steeple of the church. The vast desert 
spaces are now laughiug with harvests, and the various tribes 
of the white men are dwelling there in unity. Who can doubt 
that such expansion is in accord with the purposes of the 
Almighty in the regeneration of the world ? 

In this spirit and with such purpose the expansion of the 
Republic has more widely advanced in later years. The benefi- 
cent changes to be wrought in the alien races may require a 
full generation or more for their accomplishment. The work 
of the school-house is slow. The work of the church is dila- 
tory. But we have the glorious assurance of the past that we 
are now doing the will of the Great Ruler of Nations while 
we follow our Providential Law. Since the middle of the last 
century we have been led on step by step beyond the ocean 
boundary of our continent, following the sun in his western 
course, until scores of islands of the southern and central 
Pacific have come peacefully under the dominion of the United 
States. The Alaskan Islands carried the jurisdiction of the 
Republic within the longitudes of Northern Asia. By an 
unforeseen emergency of the Spanish War, declared for another 
and a humane purpose, we came into the unexpected posses- 
session of the Philippine Islands, on the south of the Asiatic 
continent. Like Louisiana, their purchase and annexation 
were unforeseen by the statesmen and people of our country; 
and, like Louisiana, they wall in the process of civilization 
reveal unexpected resources for the blessing of mankind and 
for the advancement and security of the Republic. 

A Century of Glory. 

We look back with amazement and with gratitude upon 
this century of our history. The first year of the XlXth 
century found our j^outhful nation barred on the West by our 
great mediterranean river, and shut off from the sea on the 
South, with the barriers guarded by tw-o formidable military 
powers of Europe. Our incipient commerce was wantonly 

21 



destroyed on the high seas, the common prey of warring 
European navies, without fear of reprisals or punishment. 
Even the paltry powers of the Barbary Coast levied tribute on 
our commercial vessels and held captured American citizens in 
slavery. Our political parties at home were more hostile to 
each other than to the foreigners who insulted our flag. The 
Republic was neither respected nor envied, neither courted nor 
feared, by any power of Europe, or Asia, or Africa. 

But now, in the first year of the XXth century, all this is 
changed. Our matured nation is in possession of the whole 
northern shore of the Gulf, including all the peninsula of 
Florida, with her jurisdiction extended across the continent to 
the shore of the Pacific, and leaping thence to the farthest 
coast of Alaska. Our flag floats over a thousand islands of the 
Western Ocean. It was the first to be welcomed in the harbors 
of Japan, of Korea and of China as the emblem of international 
peace and justice. The fame of our Navy is wafted around 
the world by every wind that blows, and the flag that covers 
its guns assures protection to our commerce on every sea and 
in the harbors of every continent. The Republic is respected 
and honored as one of the great physical and moral powers 
of the world. At home a common patriotism unites our 
political parties as never before. It has been exhibited during 
this month when all political parties in various parts of this 
great country have been assembling to greet and acclaim a 
President, who is himself the soul of patriotism and national 
honor. 

It is a marvelous expansion, a marvelous transformation, 
a miracle of the nations ! 

Thanks be to the Almighty Power which has so directed 
our destiny that in this first Summer of the new century, and 
in the third generation of the Explorers of the West, the sun 
never sets upon the territory of the Republic. The brilliant 
orb which today gilds the summit of this monument will shed 
his bright beams in every hour of his daily circuit around the 

22 



globe upon some State or territory, some plain or mountain or 
island shore, over which floats the beneficent flag of our 
expanded Republic, carrying in its folds the assurance of peace 
and liberty, order and security, education and civilization to 
all the inhabitants. May this great Memorial stand for ages 
to come to remind our children of the manly virtues of their 
race, which in the nineteenth century made the Republic so 
glorious in the annals of history. 



PRESS OF 
W. F. ROBKI 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 




